'A lesson learned’: Woman warns others after falling for energy drink scam

CHARLOTTE — Shirley Davis works in fast food and wanted to make extra money on the side, so she went online in search of an opportunity.

She told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke about someone who said they worked with Full Throttle, an energy drink company. The imposter offered to pay her $400 per week to put the company’s logo on her car, so she agreed to it.

“These people are out there preying on innocent people, senior citizens, those who are looking for extra income just to get by,” Davis said.

She said the scammer sent her a check for $3,600 and a note with instructions, which was full of red flags including:

It said “ma” instead of “ma’am” or “madam”
It spelled “check” with a -que
Run-on sentences
Spelling mistakes

Davis told Stoogenke the scammer wanted her to deposit the money in her account and send $3,000 of it to someone to install the logo on her car.

“Did any of that smell weird to you?” Stoogenke asked.

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“It did,” Davis said. “But, you know, I’m trusting, and, for whatever reason, I don’t know. I’m thinking this is legit.”

Davis checked her bank account and realized she had been duped.

“I feel really stupid right now because I did that,” she said. “But it’s a lesson learned, and I’m alerting everybody else.”

Stoogenke told Full Throttle about the scam.

Officials encourage scam victims to report it to the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau and to keep any evidence for investigators.